A Small History of My Life To My Children
A Small History of My Life to My Children
Written by Richard Emmett - Edited by Antony David Davies
A rare first-person window into the life of an ordinary Victorian soldier.
In the 1880s, Private Richard Emmett of the 22nd (Cheshire) Regiment wrote a memoir for his children-a candid account of service, adventure, and survival at the edge of the British Empire. Lost for nearly a century, this remarkable manuscript is now available to the public for the first time.
Follow Emmett from a Salford childhood of poverty to the regimental bands of the British Army. Journey with him across the world:
the garrisons of Malta and Mauritius
perilous sea voyages through storms and earthquakes
the heat and spectacle of colonial India
Amid battles, romance, and an unconventional marriage to a local woman, Emmett's plain, unpolished words capture the humour, danger, and humanity of a private soldier's life-without the filters of official history.
Edited and lightly annotated by historian Antony David Davies, this memoir also reveals the bittersweet return home: brief prosperity, then a second slide into hardship in the industrial railway town of Crewe.
Why readers will love it:
- Authentic Victorian military memoir-written by a rank-and-file soldier
- Vivid travelogue of the British Empire's far-flung outposts
- Social history of poverty, migration, and resilience in 19th-century Britain
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